In the processing of food and other products, it is often required to fill a receptacle with a product or ingredients thereof and after a processing sequence, to remove the product from the receptacle for packaging or other subsequent use. As an example, in the processing of frozen foods, a food product is dispensed into an appropriate receptacle and after freezing is removed from the receptacle for packaging. It is an object of this invention to provide a conveyor of modular form in which each module has an integrally formed receptacle into which a product can be supplied for transport through a processing cycle by the conveyor and automatically released from the receptacle by movement of the conveyor through a vertical turn.
The novel conveyor is similar to the conveyor described in copending application Ser. No. 768,531, fled Feb. 14, 1977, and assigned to the assignee of this invention. That conveyor comprises a plurality of identical interconnected modular links and capable of movement through straight and multiply curved travel paths. The conveyor is operative to be moved in a curved path in the conveyor plane and in a curved path in a plane transverse to the conveyor plane. Each link of the conveyor serves as an identical modular unit which includes linking ends pivotally connected to the linking ends of adjacent links for relative pivotal movement of adjacent links about a first axis. Each modular link is composed of two sections which are pivotally joined at a position intermediate the linking ends for relative pivotal movement of the sections about a second axis orthogonal to the first axis. Thus, the link sections are relatively pivotable in a first plane, while the adjacent links are relatively pivotable in an orthogonal plane, such that the conveyor belt composed of these interconnected links is bi-directionally movable to provide versatile transport along various intended paths. The conveyor is capable of being driven by a horizontally disposed sprocket or by a vertically disposed sprocket for corresponding movement in a horizontal turn and in a vertical turn.